Stass Paraskos
| Stass Paraskos | |
|---|---|
(family photograph)
|
|
| Born |
17 March 1933 Anaphotia |
| Died | 14 March 2014 (aged 80) |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Alma mater | Leeds College of Art |
Stass Paraskos (Greek: Στας Παράσκος; 17 March 1933 – 4 March 2014) was an artist from Cyprus, although much of his life was spent teaching and working in England.
Paraskos was born in Anaphotia, a village near the city of Larnaca, Cyprus in 1933, the second of six sons of an impoverished peasant farmer. He went to England in 1953, working first as a pot washer and waiter in the ABC Tearoom in London's Tottenham Court Road, and then moving to the city of Leeds, in the north of England to become a cook in his brother's newly opened Greek restaurant. The restaurant became a popular haunt of the local art students who encouraged Paraskos to enrol for classes at Leeds College of Art (later Leeds Beckett University). Despite not having the usual entry qualifications to start a college course, Paraskos was spotted by the college's inspirational Head of Fine Art, Harry Thubron, who allowed Paraskos to enrol without the usual entry requirements. There he became close friends with artists such as Dennis Creffield, Terry Frost and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, with Frost and Barns-Graham persuading Paraskos to move to St Ives in Cornwall in 1959. In St Ives, Paraskos shared a studio with Barns-Graham until he returned to Leeds in 1961 and began teaching at Leeds College of Art.
In 1966 Paraskos was involved in a notorious court case, which became known as the Stass Paraskos Obscenity Trial, in which it was alleged he displayed paintings that were 'lewd and obscene', in contravention of the Vagrancy Act 1838. The court case was one of a number of important legal challenges to the freedom of the arts in the 1960s and 70s, starting with the Lady Chatterley trial in 1960, and ending with the Oz magazine trial in 1971. Despite luminaries of the art world speaking in Paraskos's defence, including Sir Herbert Read and Norbert Lynton, and messages of support from Britain's Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, Paraskos lost the trial and was fined five pounds.
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